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On Sun, 27 Feb 2000 you wrote:
> Is there Lunar water on the moon?
Hello Kelly,
The answer to your question is: maybe. We sent a probe called the
"Lunar Prospector" to the moon
recently. It detected the existence of hydrogen near the moon's north and
south poles. As you may know, hydrogen and oxygen make up water. There
are other things that may contain hydrogen, but water is the only thing
would exist only at the moon's north and south poles.
Why would water only be at the moons poles? If there was water anywhere
on the moon that received sunlight, the sun would melt any ice. Because
the moon has no air, the water would evaporate right away. Since the
moon's gravity is not very strong, it would not be able to hold onto the
water vapor, which would float off into space. At the moon's poles,
however, there are craters where the sun never shines. Here, any water
could stay frozen as ice and remain on the moon.
Some scientists think that there is enough water on the moon to fill an
entire lake. Many scientists think there may only be enough water to fill
a small pond. And some think that there is no water at all, but that the
hydrogen is part of some other chemical.
If there is water on the moon, it might be useful for astronauts who want
to make a moon base. Then they would not have to bring water with them
from Earth. Bringing water from Earth is very expensive, so many people
hope there is water on the moon!
I hope this answers your question. Thanks for writing!
Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams
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